The Redemption of Colonel Tigh
by PTBvisiongrrl
Summary: Colonel Tigh becomes a better man with the help of a Cylon occupation and Kara Thrace nonromantic relationship.
1. Prologue

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

Work In Progress 

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 1?

**Date-** 07/11/2006

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

Word Count- 1309 

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 2 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace. 

The Redemption of Colonel Tigh

Most men would come out of months of Cylon torture broken. Not Saul Tigh. Eye missing, broken bones barely healed, bruises almost permanent, Tigh came back…

…more right than he had been in years.

Tigh had risen to the challenge of the Occupation. The moment the first frakkin' toaster had marched through New Caprica City, he knew his drinking days were done. He needed to be alert and prepared- no longer could they jump their battlestar to another location to escape. The toasters were here, and the humans had no way to leave or force them to go. He had no intention of sitting back and becoming some Cylon slave, nor letting the civilians settled on the planet becoming slaves. Especially the children. Gods, especially the children.

That had been the first time he had told the Cylons "No." They had wanted to take the children away, to teach them about the Cylon God and His plans for the Colonists. Not a parent himself anymore, Tigh still felt the echo of wrongness in his soul, the fear for those little souls. That was when Kara Thrace and Galen Tyrrol had visited his tent in the dead of night, after the Cylons had decreed that all children under the age of five were to be turned over in three days' time, after he and Ellen had had the last of many arguments over her survival instincts.

"Dammit, Saul, its not like their our kids," she had spat at him, slamming her glass of alcohol down hard enough to make the rest of the plates on the table jump. "There will be more. It will buy us time! Time is what we need!"

Tigh had finally, in the moments after she had callously given up the hope of humanity without a second thought, seen her clearly for what she was, devoid of his emotions. A woman broken by her past, allowing it to control her without her even realizing it. A woman who didn't know what she wanted out of life beyond a steady supply of oblivion- meaning alcohol and willing men. It had never mattered so much to him before, he himself being broken as well.

But that night, he had begun a slow healing.

For once, he stood up to her. The shock on her face would have been comical in another setting. "Get out, Ellen."

"What?" she snapped.

"Leave." He grabbed a small suitcase and began stuffing it with her clothes and other incidentals- perfume, makeup, lingerie. Things that he had never noticed were so out of place on the planet before this moment. His heart contracted, realizing what he was doing, what he was putting an end to- and that he should have done it years ago. Handing her the bag, he held the tent flap open for her. "Now."

Ellen pulled out an old trick quickly, tearing up and acting flustered and confused. "But why, Saul? And where should I go?"

"Go find the latest boy you've been frakking and move in there, for all I care." Saul sighed, his soul tired. "Any where but here. You are no longer welcome here."

The dead silence, the moment of open hatred in her eyes as she realized that he actually meant it, would be burned into his memory forever. It was a turning point. He knew that as badly as he had botched his command of Galactica during Bill's injury, as much contempt as the crew held for him, he was still a Colonial officer and had a duty to protect her citizens, the last remnants of their civilization. That duty was more important than his marriage to Ellen- more important, even, than his individual life.

In his mind, as he began to mechanically clean up the dinner dishes and gather the things left behind by Ellen into a pile, he ran through the list of Colonials planet-side, counting how many soldiers there were here from the Galactica that he felt could be trusted. It was short list.

Just then, Tyrrol and Thrace showed up with their proposal for saving the children. It was bold, though still more restrained than Thrace's usual hair-brained miracle plays, which he commented on. "Not your usual style, Starbuck," he stated, leaning back a little.

"There usually aren't children involved in my plans, sir." Starbuck stated in an even tone.

Tigh acknowledged her comment with a short nod. "And that is the main problem with this situation. Who is going to stay with the children? The Cylons are doing morning roll calls. If someone doesn't show up, they're gonna know. And if that person shows back up…they will want to know where he or she has been."

Tyrrol nodded. "Yes. We need a couple of soldiers to 'go rogue." Some who are willing to leave and never come back, until the Cylons are gone."

"Or we're rescued," Kara interjected.

Saul's mouth tightened. "The Old Man might not be able to pull that off, this time. We might be here for good."

"Lee still has the Pegasus, too, sir." Kara's voice sounded tight at the use of Lee's name. "We have a chance."

"So we double-play it. Plan as if we have no help, and hope like hell that some shows up. We'll try to communicate with the ships, come up with an evacuation plan that could be implemented if needed…" The three of them looked at each other in turn. There was no need to address the danger of the situation. It was more than a part of their no-longer jobs. It was a part of them, even Tigh.

Rising, Tigh leaned over the maps on his table, the lists of children's names that Galen and Kara had brought with them. He wondered, and could not help but ask, "Why bring this to me? Why not do this on your own?"

Galen shot Kara a look, which she missed as she began speaking. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

That line usually ended with her in the brig. Tigh narrowed his eyes. "Permission granted."

"The Old Man always kept you around, and he wouldn't do that if there wasn't something worth it beneath the drunkenness, sir. We've also noticed that you haven't been drinking since the Cylons got here, and we frankly couldn't pull off this big an operation by ourselves. My reputation notwithstanding," Kara added with a smirk.

"And if I hadn't agreed to help?" he crossed his arms.

Kara's smirk got bigger. "Once you knew the plan, if you wouldn't help, I was going to make sure that you couldn't tell anyone else."

Tigh actually barked out a sharp laugh. "And you would have enjoyed that, too, wouldn't you Starbuck?"

Tyrrol relaxed a bit, but not entirely, still ready to step between the two if he had to do so to prevent bloodshed or unnecessary attention. The two stared at each other, neither one backing down. Tigh spoke again first. "We'll start in the morning. Go get some rack time."

And that is how he, together with Kara (his distaste for her thick in his throat at times) and Tyrrol, had come to lead the resistance for past three months. They had secretly blown up supply points and farms, successfully hiding at least half the children in the surrounding forests, and killing as many Cylons as possible, until today. Until the Cylons had taken him along with an injured Kara Thrace. He had been defending her against them to his last conscious thought. Whether he liked her or not didn't matter; she was a fellow soldier, and you didn't abandon or leave a man behind. She had been injured in the attack, a flash-bang nearly beneath her causing what he assumed was a concussion. At least so he had hoped, until the gleaming centurions were on them. Then he hoped, for her sake, that it was more than that.

He hoped that she was dead.


	2. Chapter 1

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

Work In Progress 

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 2?

**Date-** 07/11/2006

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

Word Count- 790 

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo-Starbuck fanfic group, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 2 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace. 

Chapter One

Kara wasn't dead. She came to before Tigh, her head throbbing and suffering a moment of double vision. They had been left splayed across a cold concrete floor, in what looked like a cell. There were windowless stone block walls on three sides and one wall of steel reinforced plexiglass with a door and two-way phone. There was no furniture at all, not even a rack. There was a head, open to the rest of the cell, in a corner. The Galactica's brig was a luxury suite compared to this.

Making her way slowly over, not quite able to walk yet, to Colonel Tigh, she checked his vitals. His breathing was fine and vitals were strong, but he was still unresponsive. Judging from the bruising on his temple and the scrapes on his hands and face, the Cylons had been none too gently with either one of them. Unable to do anything more for her and afraid to move her, he turned his attention to the room itself.

Sitting in the buzzing silence, she considered their situation. The Cylons had not killed them, which meant they wanted something from them. Obviously, the Cylons would want information about the resistance. She stayed away from the thoughts of how they might pry this knowledge from her, because she certainly wasn't giving them anything. She thought back to her instruction in psychological warfare at the academy, a class that she had hardly worked for, considering her childhood ample preparation for enemy capture and interrogation. That's all torture really was- using physical sensation to bring about a mental breaking point, when you would say anything to make it stop. The best way to handle torture was to lie early, and lie frequently, so that they would never be able to figure out the truth.

She would not consider giving up anyone as a fellow resistance fighter to the toasters, nor would she let the locations of the children be known. She would die before she gave that up. And that is what they would want to know.

At some point during her mental debate, Tigh began to stir. Kara watched a frown crease his brow, then immediate wariness mask his face as he realized where he was. He sat up too quickly, and sunk back down onto the hard floor with a thunk. "Thrace?" he called.

"Sir?" she answered. "What happened?"

"The frakkin' toasters got us. What do you think?" he snapped as he rose again slowly and stumbled over to her. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit. Worse than the worse hangover I've ver had." She tried to fill in the blanks in her memory. "How?"

"Got you with a flash-bang. Overwhelmed and knocked me out." Tigh looked in her eyes, checking her pupils. "You got at least a mild concussion. Anything other than the headache?"

Kara stood up slowly. "Nothing unusual. I feel like I've been used as a heavy bag, but I don't think-" she hissed as she leaned on her right hand. She had missed something in her injury self-evaluation. "Now that hurts."

"What hurts?" Tigh asked quickly back. "Arm, hand, or wrist?"

"Wrist." She flexed it slowly, without any weight on it. "I think it might be sprained." She held it up weakly. "Swollen, too."

Tigh grabbed it roughly, making Kara swallow back a yelp but she didn't strike out at him. "More like fractured, I'd say. We need to put it in a sling so that you don't injury it any worse." He padded his pockets until he came up with a large bandana, which he folded into a triangle and looped it around her neck before putting her arm in.

Kara didn't say a word during the entire procedure. She was already busy thinking and planning ahead. The constant need to stay one step ahead of the Cylons had finally begun to beat the "by the seat of the pants" reactions she had fallen into for years- both professionally and personally- out of her. Problem was, she didn't see much to plan for here.

Tigh interrupted her thoughts. "They'll be coming for us soon."

"It's not like we can go anywhere," Starbuck stated, a hint of fear in her voice. "All I see is a locked room, no weapons, in the middle of what I assume is a Cylon base- or maybe a ship. Unknown numbers of physically stronger opponents. We don't even know if we're still planet-side."

Tigh grimaced. "We need more information to plan anything."

Kara nodded, drawing a slow, deep breath as she leaned back against a wall and closed her eyes. "Might as well rest up."

Tigh considered her with a sharp gaze for a few minutes before acquiescing and leaning himself back as well.


	3. Chapter 2

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

_Work In Progress_

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 3?

**Date-** 07/28/2006

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

**Word Count- 551**

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck fanfic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 2 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Two

Tigh never expected Starbuck to be some weepy girl, but he was still surprised at how quietly she accepted their capture and probable torture. She had carefully considered their options, come up with nothing, and hadn't yelled, screamed, or punched anything. This was not the rash fighter pilot he remembered.

Or maybe she never was as rash as he thought. As outrageous as her battle plans had ever been, they rarely ever failed. And her resistance plans were never as outrageous as her air battle plans had been. The only difference he could come up with was that the resistance plans directly affected untrained civilians, and that she kept that fact in mind. The mark of a good leader, something he never really thought she'd be. He kept the thought and pushed is aside to consider later.

There wasn't anything in this Cylon cell to be a leader of, anyway.

It seemed like hours later and the Cylons still hadn't shone up. Either they were busy fighting the Colonials- unlikely, as the big coordinated plans of the resistance seemed crushed- or the Cylons were letting them stew to build the fear.

Saul's fear was certainly increasing. Knowing the techniques of torture really didn't make the experience of being the torture-ee any less frightening. He had trouble keeping his mind from the inevitable, and hoping that he wouldn't disgrace himself or his rank too badly before they killed him. He really didn't have much hope that they would escape, but he wouldn't discuss that with Kara just yet.

Observing that Kara really hadn't slept much- she kept shifting and moving, even though her eyes never opened- he decided that talking was better than the silence. "Thrace?"

A tired sigh. "Yes, sir?"

"As senior officer, they should take me first." Saul stated the obvious.

"Yes, sir," Kara's eyes opened.

Saul forced himself to look into them and put aside his personal clashes with Starbuck to concentrate on the fact that she was a Colonial officer. He had gotten better at acknowledging her skills, yes, but he still didn't pay her compliments. "Before this- starts- I need to know that you know what to do."

"I don't get you," Kara sat up straight and gave him a tense look.

"I may not like you, Starbuck, but even I have to admit that you are the most stubborn person I know. I think you will last longer than me." Tigh tried to frame his request in the least pessimistic way, then gave up. "If the time comes, if it becomes necessary- will you-"

Thrace frowned tightly. "It won't come to that."

Saul shook his head. "But if it does?"

"Sir-" she started hotly.

Tigh cut her off. "There was a time when I think you would have gladly taken me out without being asked."

Laughter momentarily rippled through Kara's expression. "True."

"So, take the free shot." Tigh stared her down.

Kara slowly nodded. "Okay. Only if you do me a similar favor, sir."

"Captain?" he asked. "Care to clarify?"

"Don't let them turn me into a Cylon incubator." Her expression was blank. "I can handle anything but that."

Saul nodded shortly in agreement, holding Kara's gaze firmly. "Pray that the time never comes."

Their conversation was cut-short by the tardy arrival of a Number Six.


	4. Chapter 3

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

_Work In Progress_

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 4?

**Date-** 07/30/2006

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

**Word Count- **922

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 2 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Three

Kara was hauled up from her position on the floor by her hair before she could do anything about it. "It's your turn first, sweetie-pie." Six's voice was low and dangerous.

Tigh tried to intervene, rising slowly but steadily. "I'm the senior officer here, blondie. Let her be."

Six simply raised an eyebrow and, without a word, kicked out with her foot. She knocked Tigh bloody and into an unconscious slump on the floor. "How noble," she noted dryly.

Kara struggled against Six, clamping her good hand around the wrist of the hand holding her up like a ragdoll, trying to get some kind of stability to fight against. Six declined to grapple with her, and threw Kara face first into the nearest wall. As Kara tried to recover from the blinding pain and see through the red dripping in to her eye, another Cylon- a Leobon, judging from his voice- entered.

"Six, be gentle," he stated, his tone mocking. Leobon went to Kara and helped her upright. Kara held herself as far away from Leobon as possible, tried to pull away further. Leobon was much less forceful at restraining Kara than Six was, but there was still no doubt she was going where Leobon wanted her to go. "We want her able to talk." He steered her out the door and down a long white hall. His hand on her arm was like a steel vise grip. A silver centurion stood guard at the end of the hall, his red pulse steady.

Kara tried to take in as much of her surroundings as possible, including the number of doors passed by and if she was on a ship or in a building still on the planet. She thought that they were still planet side- her gut instinct from years spent aboard a battle-star- but she couldn't find evidence to support her belief. There were no windows, and the air was recycled and cooled. The amount of glaring lights lining the hall made her think of a subterranean lair.

The room the centurion guarded opened and Kara was pulled inside and shoved into a chair. There was a Boomer and another Six already in the room. Kara sat as comfortably as she could, gathering her Starbuck, devil-may-care attitude around herself like a protective shield. "And what can I do for you toasters today?"

The first Six, a step behind Leobon, punched her in the face, rocking the chair along with Starbuck. "There's no reason to resort to racial epithets, Starbuck."

Wiping another smear of blood- the first of many, she was sure- from the corner of her mouth, Starbuck hid her inner fear and smirked. "Call 'em as I see 'em."

Boomer spoke up from the corner. "Kara, you don't have to make this painful."

Licking her split lip, Kara nodded. "Yeah, right- you just want to talk to me. What is it that you want from me?"

The second Six stepped forward, arms crossed and an evil glint in her eye. "Aside from some pain and payback? Nothing." And then she proceeded to work Kara over carefully, damaging as much of Kara as possible without permanently harming her, until Kara passed out.

When Kara came to again, she was still in the same room, still in the chair, but all the Cylons had left, aside from Leobon. She looked at him through swollen eyes, trying to breathe past her probably broken nose. He studied her carefully, lips pursed, for several minutes before speaking. "I told you that the next time we met, it might be me torturing you instead of the other way around."

Kara grunted. "So you did."

"You felt sympathy for me, despite how you treated me." Leobon walked around her slowly, observing her reaction. "I feel the same, but it won't interfere with my duty, either. I need to know Colonial transponder codes, numbers, ship names- how were you planning to get the colonists off this rock."

Chuckling, wincing at an ache in her side, "The battlestars left us. We weren't planning on leaving- we were working on making you leave."

"I can be patient, Kara." Leobon rose, calmly grasping around Kara's throat and cutting off her air just slightly. "But how much pain can you stand?"

Kara gasped in as much air as possible and prayed to the Gods that he would let go before she passed out again. "As much as you can dish out."

He released her before the point of unconsciousness, as spots danced in the corners of her field of vision. She gulped air back into deprived lungs and coughed. "Where are the children you've hidden from us?"

"Where you'll never find them, you frakkin' son of a bitch." Kara spat out at him hoarsely. The mention of the children they had saved gave her more of will to fight. "Humanity will live on."

"Who says that I don't want humanity to live on?" the Leobon cupped Kara's chin and pulled her eyes up to meet his. "I just want them subservient, not erradicated."

Kara found enough moisture in her mouth to spit in his face, her last act before another hit robbed her of consciousness.

This time, Kara woke up back in her cell, just as Tigh was being removed by a Boomer. She managed to sit up and give him a hard look before he was gone, but that's where her strength ended. Curling up into a fetal position, vision blurry, she criss-crossed back and forth between reality and blackness.


	5. Chapter 4

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

_Work In Progress_

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 4?

**Date-** 7-31-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

**Word Count- **1099

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 2 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Four

As soon as Tigh had regained consciousness, he surged up- and right back down- to see if Kara had been returned yet. He had hopes that Cylons would kill them quickly- but the toasters would have simply executed them both here if that was the plan. That meant that the Cylons needed information. When he thought back to what the Colonials had done to captured Cylons to get information, a cold chill ran up and down his spine. The thought of interrogation made him wish strongly and fondly for an ambrosia. Liquid or not, he needed courage right now. He had never been more scared in his life.

In the middle of his mental wanderings, the cell door opened and a very bruised and bloodied Thrace was tossed back in. She was aware enough to give him a good long look- something of good luck and we're so frakked mixed- but not much more than that. Tigh was so busy trying to ascertain the injuries sustained by Thrace that he barely registered the Cylon in front of him. When he felt the pull on his arm, he looked and had that moment of disorientation and intense hatred that he always had when he looked upon a Valerii copy.

"Your turn," Boomer grimly smiled.

Rising as fast as he was able, Tigh tried to minimize the need for Boomer to touch him or try to force him along. He moved as quickly as he could in the direction she was herding him. Boomer noticed. "Are you in a hurry, Colonel?" she asked dryly.

Tigh straightened his back and shoulders, trying to look stronger than her felt. "Let's just get this over with," he barked in his usual authoritarian tone.

Sharon actually smiled. "I always wondered how you'd hold up in a real situation without alcohol."

His eyes narrowed, but he didn't reply. _Do not engage the enemy in conversation. Name, Rank, and Serial number, over and over again._ He mentally chanted the instructions every officer was given in War College. _Keep silent. Give no information. When you break- and everyone will break- lie. Lie, lie, and keep lying. Contradict yourself and confuse them. Because eventually you will give them the truth and you don't want them to realize it._ At the same time, he was examining his surroundings just as Kara had along the same hall.

When he and Boomer came to the centurion-guarded room, the door opened. He was rocked by the site that greeted him.

"Saul! Did they hurt you much? Oh, my poor, poor Saul!" Ellen started her concerned act as he regarded her with a cold stare. She fluttered about him, touching his face and examining his bruises, until he told her to knock it off.

"There's only one way you got here, Ellen, and it doesn't surprise me." Tigh spat out at her. "Don't play concerned little wife. We all know that it's an act. You're a frakkin' collaborator."

Ellen's facial expression immediately soured and became haughty. "I tried to tell them that this wouldn't work, but they didn't believe me." She crossed her arms and looked him coldly up and down. "Look what you've done to yourself, Saul. You have no one to blame for the position you are in but yourself. If you had listened to me-"

"My soul would end up in hell for eternity, you self-centered bitch." Tigh started to get up, but was quickly restrained by Boomer's hand pushing him back down. "I would put the bullet in you myself if I could."

Ellen looked out the corner of her eye at the Sharon. "I told you, Boomer. I told you all. We had a falling out months ago. He doesn't care what I have to say."

Boomer smiled smugly, moving so quickly that neither Ellen nor Saul saw it coming. In seconds, she had her hands wrapped around Ellen's throat and Ellen was struggling for breath. Saul tried to remove Boomer's hands, but the Cylon was unmovable. She shoved Tigh back towards his chair, and dropped Ellen on the floor the minute Ellen lost consciousness. "We want as much information as you have about what's left of the fleet- Colonial transponder codes, numbers, ship names. We also need to know how were you planning to get the colonists off this rock, and where are the children you've been hiding from us."

"Tigh, Saul. Colonel. 97968523." Tigh settled his eyes on a spot above the Boomer's left shoulder, and did not look down at Ellen again during the session. In answer to every question, he repeated his name, rank, and serial number. The session went on for hours. Not once did they lay a hand on him. Every time he refused to answer a question, Ellen paid for it. The sounds of flesh hitting flesh- metal hitting flesh, he corrected himself, her cries and begging and whimpering in pain- he blocked it all out, concentrating on the faces of the children the Resistance had saved.

The feelings he had once had for Ellen had died. It had been a slow process over the years, from the moment of her first illicit affair on. The fight over the children had simply been the last and final cut. Still, he felt the sympathy and guilt he would feel for any human being hurt by the Cylons as a result of him. It wasn't enough to make him give up any of the information they wanted, though.

At some point, a Leobon model had entered, observing. It was he that brought an end to the torture of Ellen Tigh, telling Boomer that he would take the woman back to a cell, and that Boomer was to return Tigh to his own. Tigh held his feelings in tight, his facial expression never changing on the walk back to his cell minutes after Ellen had been taken out.

As the Boomer shoved him through the doorframe, Tigh's shoulders drooped and his eyes watered. There were no emotions racing through him as he thought there should be. The frakkin' toasters had just about killed his wife, in front of him, and he couldn't feel a thing. It's shock, the rational part of his mind kept saying. The less rational part whispered that there was something wrong with him. Ignoring both sides, he made his way over to Thrace, either still unconscious or asleep in the corner. Checking her vital signs to make sure that she was still alive, he lay next to her on the floor, between her and the door, and drifted off himself.


	6. Chapter 5

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

_Work In Progress_

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 6?

**Date-** 8-2-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

**Word Count- **1386

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 2 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Five

It was impossible to tell time in the darkness of the cell. It could have been hours or days before Kara began to stir. Tigh immediately opened his eyes and moved to her side. "Kara? How badly are you hurt?"

Kara needed to lick her split and bloody lips before she could force them to move. "Nothing permanent or life threatening. They were quite explicit that I needed to be able to speak for the next meeting." She coughed, cringing and covering her side. "Definitely broke a rib or two." She could barely see through the swelling of her blackened eyes, but she squinted to get a better look at Tigh. "What about you?"

There was a pause. "They didn't lay a hand on me." Tigh's tone was resigned and quiet.

"What do you mean?" Kara asked in a surprised tone. "Didn't they take you out to question as I came back? I thought that's what I remembered."

"They did." Tigh ran a hand tiredly over his eyes, trying to brush the vision of Ellen from his mind. "I gave them name, rank, and serial number over and over again."

"They didn't push you? Didn't hit you?" Kara shifted how she was sitting, wincing the entire time. There wasn't a piece of her that wasn't hurting in some way or another. How had Tigh escaped it?

"Not me." Tigh ground out, jaw clenched so tightly that the muscles quivered. "Ellen."

"What?" Kara asked, an incredulous expression blocked by the damage. "Sir?"

"The toasters thought that I would give up to save Ellen."

Tigh couldn't look at Kara, and he heard in the tenor of her next question that Kara still doubted him. Quiet, barely above a whisper, and full of despair, she asked. "Did you?"

He knew that Kara was well within her rights to question him on this. His downfall as an officer, in the time that she had known him, was alcohol and Ellen. And he had begun to realize that Kara never fully trusted anyone but herself and the Adamas. So he took a deep breath, swallowing his initial response, and just as quietly as she asked, answered. "No."

Kara slumped a little in relief. "Thank the gods. I'm sorry but I had to ask."

Saul nodded. "I understand." He still wouldn't look at her, but remained next to her where he was, and let the silence fill the void.

The timelessness of the silence and darkness must have gotten to Kara, because she spoke first. "I know we're not the best of friends, but do you want to talk about it, sir?" He could see by the look on her face that she hoped he would say no, and he thought to oblige her. But when he open his mouth to day no, the words just tumbled out.

"You wouldn't understand, Thrace, why I loved Ellen." Tigh closed his eyes to think back to when he had first met Ellen. "You're too young, yet, I think, despite the end of the world. Maybe one day you'll know what it's like to be old and used up, and hate that you are. If you're lucky someone like my Ellen will come along and make you feel alive again, and show you how to enjoy life." Tigh's voice hardened. "Just don't mistake the fact that you can finally feel again for love. It's not, and you'll just end up old and used up again trying to make it out to be more." He sighed and leaned back against the wall.

He'd said more than he'd ever wanted or meant to, and he waited for Thrace to come up with some casual, funny-to-her quip to throw in his face. The moments stretched on, without anything but a respectful silence, and he decided that he needed to talk this through, and she was the only human to hear it. "And if you do find someone to love, see them as they are, not as you want them to be. They can only be who they are, after all. I failed to see that Ellen could be mean and self-serving, and that she would never get past that. I kept telling myself that she would, that she meant well and just didn't know better. The alcohol played a role in that, for both of us, that I should have done something about long before the toasters invaded."

Kara sighed. "For all that it's worth, Colonel, I'm glad you finally did it when you did. We needed you to run the Resistance. Galen and I- we couldn't do it ourselves."

When Tigh didn't respond, Kara continued. "And I may be young, sir, but I understand what you're saying. That's not a pat line, it's not meant to make you feel good, it's true. There's a lot that's not in my personnel file about me, and a lot you don't know about me. No one, or at least very few, know me that well."

Tigh grunted in agreement, and decided- if she was going to be his cell mate, with such little hope of escape, that he might as well talk to her like a human being, not a lesser officer. "Lee Adama one of those few?"

A quick intake of breath told him how close his comment had hit. "Not even Lee knows everything."

Considering his words, Tigh decided to change the subject subtley. "So how were you so used up at such a young age that you had to learn to live again?" he tried to keep his tone non-sarcastic, but wasn't sure if he pulled it off. _Guess not_, he thought as she replied.

"I know you don't like me, sir. We don't have to get all buddy-buddy because we're going to die here." She shifted her body with a hiss to face away from him.

He wasn't sure why he felt the need to push. He had spent years as the tough ass XO, making the hard calls, not being the hand-holding sympathic to every frak up recruit that showed up. He didn't do the emotional, understanding crap. Why did he feel the need to do it now? Partially, yes, they were going to die, and he had very little doubt of it. He wanted to get to know this young woman who had essentially given up her life to make others safe, who had been such a pain in his ass but had begun to gain his respect. How had he been so wrong about her? "Who was it, Lieutenant?"

A deep sigh and a miniscule shake of her head. "You really want to do this? It's going to ruin your image."

"Humor me. I need something to occupy my time. Your emotional traumas will just have to do, unless you've got a bottle of ambrosia hidden somewhere on your person." He stared at her back until she answered him. "Why were you so old and beat before your time?"

"My mother," was her only answer.

Tigh squinted in confusion. "What?"

"My mother felt that life was a pain to be endured, a punishment from the gods for being vain enough to be happy. She felt that we should be grateful for the life the gods gave us, and that every act should show it. At least, that's what she said until about half-way through her daily bottle." Kara shivered a little at the obviously painful memory, and Saul felt a bit bad about pushing it.

He cleared his throat. "What did she do to you?"

A short, tearful, almost hysterical laugh was cut off. "What didn't she do to me? Locked me in closets for punishment, beat me if I disobeyed- and I always did, whether I meant to or not- broke bones, hopes, my will." Kara sighed softly. "She died when I was sixteen. I never got to ask her why she did those things to me. I never knew why. And I still wonder. Was I really that bad? What there something so awful about me that I deserved to be so unhappy and unloved?"

Tigh could relate to her feelings. Life had not been kind to him, either, though kinder than it had been to Kara Thrace. "So who pulled you out and taught you to live again?"

"Zak Adama."


	7. Chapter 6

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

_Work In Progress_

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 7?

**Date-** 8-3-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

**Word Count- **1425

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 1 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter 6

The admissions of her past hung heavy in the air between Kara and Tigh. Never, ever would she have pictured herself spilling her guts about her bad childhood to Tigh of all people. But somehow, it seemed okay now. She sensed that he needed the distraction from what had happened to Ellen today. And, despite herself and the rocky past with Tigh, she had come to respect him. When push came to shove, he had shoved back hard, cold turkey stopping the drinking and kicking out Ellen. He had helped with the Resistance, knowing as well as she did that if they were caught, death would be preferable.

And yet, he still did it. He was, in his own fashion, a warrior as much as she. Maybe better at it than her, drink aside. If she could help him ease the burden of their last days, she would do what she could. Maybe talking about it would help ease her own, because there were many things she had left unsaid, unresolved, and it was unlikely that she would be able to say those needed things. Even if not with the people who needed to hear it, at least she could get the words out.

As his silence dragged on, she swallowed hard, wishing for some water to ease her throat. "Zak showed me that life could be a joy, how to have fun, that it wasn't simply to be endured. He was a sweet, loving guy."

"I never saw the boys much, after Bill and Caroline divorced." Tigh sounded surprised himself by what he revealed next. "My own daughter died about that time, and I didn't really want to be around kids any way."

"I didn't know that you had had a daughter," Kara responded.

"At this point, only Bill, Ellen, and I know." Tigh turned the conversation back to her. "But at the time, I actively avoided children altogether, and Bill didn't see the boys that much anyway. I never really got to know Zak."

Kara tried her trademark Starbuck smirk, then froze in pain. She didn't think there was a muscle on her that the Cylon bitch hadn't bruised. "And we know how you feel about Lee…"

"He can be a pill, but he's not a complete waste of an officer," Tigh acknowledged, the betrayal on Colonial One far enough in the past to give him a little more perspective. "Damn fine pilot."

Thinking longingly of Lee, despite all they had been through, and flying with him once more, she sighed deeply. Somewhere, deep down in side, she still expected him to pull a miracle out and find her. Her faith in him was that strong. "Galactica and Pegasus may still find us, Colonel."

Tigh studied her wistful face and nodded. "You really think they're going to find us, waste resources on two missing ex-officers?"

"I know that it isn't the logical thing to do, but they did it before looking for me." Kara hugged her arms around herself in an attempt to warm up. The cold steel of their cell was beginning to seep into her bones. "I know I'm not worth that kind of fuss, but that's just the kind of guy Lee is."

"I thought Zak Adama was the light in your life." Tigh's tone was not as sarcastic as the words could have been, so Kara went on.

"I loved Zak. It wasn't an instant, first look love. It built over time, when he just wouldn't give up on me. So I took a chance with Zak that I would not normally have taken, but…" Kara trailed off. "In retrospect, it might have been better for him if I hadn't."

"What did you have to do with the boy's death? It was an accident." Tigh stated.

Kara's heart tightened in her chest just a little bit more. Did she really need to confess these sins yet again? Well, if she was going to tell her story, she might as well tell all the details. "I made a bad judgement call, passed Zak when I should have failed him for Basic Flight. He had no business being in a viper, hell, even in a Raptor. He _knew_ how to fly, memorized the manuals, but he had no feel, no instinct, for it." She left unstated why she had passed Zak. It did not escape Tigh.

"You passed him in order for the two of you to be happy." Tigh stated it for her.

"I couldn't fail him, crush his dreams. If I did, I crushed my own." Kara sighed. "I never thought I would be happy in my life, and I just couldn't let my chance go. And in doing so, I lost my chance."

"If you are looking for someone to blame you here, Starbuck, it won't be me. People make mistakes, mistakes that cost others lives all the time in our business. Our failings, our emotions, affect the decisions we make." Saul chuckled, in a non-amused way. "I am a prime example of it. I can't give you absolution- but I can empathize." His tone changed, dropped. "Does the Old Man know?"

"I told him after the Cylon attacks." Kara's voice was thick with suppressed emotion. "Right before I got caught on that frakkin' planet and screwed up my knee."

"Then you've obviously been forgiven." Tigh shifted so that he could see Kara's face. "You are like a daughter to him."

"He's given me much better than I deserve." Kara clumsily tried to wipe the tears away that had come unbidden and rolled down her cheeks.

Tigh asked the next obvious question. "What about Lee? Does he know?"

"Yeah. Didn't go as well." Kara answered shortly. She wished that Tigh would stop bringing up Lee. The thought of him, of leaving things as ugly between them as they had been, made her heart hurt worse than any injury the Cylons had yet given her. Kara sniffled. "Lee and I- we had was a really great friendship, until I frakked that up, too. Zak's death took the joy out of my life. All I had was duty, flying- and the Adamas. Quite frankly, there wasn't much left on Caprica for the Cylons to destroy."

Trying to lighten the mood, Tigh attempted a joke. "There was always driving me crazy. Or taking a swing at me."

Kara chuckled. "Somehow the time in hack made it less enjoyable than I thought it would."

"At least all the time thre prepared yo for this tiny shit-hole." Tigh rose and began to pace. The touchy-feely moment was over for now, she could feel the mood in the air change. "What's wrong with this?"

Kara declined to rise yet but looked around the room with a new eye. "There isn't a guard."

Now, granted, we pose almost no threat to a Cylon, especially unarmed-" Tigh started.

"But there should still be someone there for appearances," Kara finished for him. "Unless our presence is supposed to be secret."

"Why wouldn't the Cylons want other Cylons to know that we're here?" Tigh asked the empty air of the cell. The answer came with the aroma of food, as for the first time in days food appeared at the door to their cell, along with a Boomer.

"There isn't a consensus on how to deal with you yet," the Boomer offered. "And the Leobons don't want anyone who disagrees with them to find you."

Kara looks at the Boomer with contempt and sorrow. "Why tell us that?"

"Kara, I know you even though you aren't sure who I am. I remember everything about Galactica- my friends-"

Kara interrupted the Boomer. "Don't pull this mind shit with me, now. Either tell us or leave."

The Boomer looked hurt, and turned away to leave. Kara called her back, even as bile rose in her throat at doing so. "Boomer, what did you mean?"

Dark eyes studied Kara for a long moment. "Leobon told you something of it, the copy you interrogated on Galactica. All this has happened before, and all this will happen again crap."

Surprise flitted across Kara's face. "You don't believe this?" she questioned.

"Not all of us share the same set of beliefs about the prophecies." Boomer looked unsure of herself. "I can't tell you more than you are in them, Kara. And that's where our concensus ends. You're special, Kara. That's what is keeping you alive. Be glad for it." With that, Boomer looked nervously over her shoulder and left with a low, "Gotta go."


	8. Chapter 7

**Title-** The Redemption of Colonel Tigh

Work In Progress 

**Author-** PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 9?

**Date-** 8-17-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!), Lee/Kara (eventually)

Word Count- 1706 

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Angst, Action, Drama, Romance (eventually)

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 1 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…

**Summary-** Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Seven 

Kara's skin pricked in cold fear at the Sharon's words. _"You're special, Kara. That's what is keeping you alive." _Kara's mind raced. What could make her special to the Cylons? "Frak!" she spat out, immediately regretting it as her split lip re-opened.

"Care to elaborate, Captain?" Tigh asked, one eyebrow raised.

"What's so frakkin- special about me?" she asked, her face contorted in contempt. "I'm a viper pilot from Caprica, with a bad attitude and a dislike of authority. There were hundreds of Caprican screw-ups and viper pilots before me. What makes me stick out?" She wanted desperately to punch the wall, something, but knew that the blonde Cylon bitch had done enough damage to her already. She settled for throwing a mug from Sharon's tray, and listening to the satisfying shattering sound it made upon impact.

"There's two ways to approach this, Thrace," Tigh reached for some noodles from the Boomer's food tray and noisily slurped them up before Kara felt like chucking something else. "Either they are playing with your mind, or you really are somehow special to them. So the question is- why would they frak with you so much? I can't think of a good reason for it. If they wanted to disable viper pilots, shooting you out of the air would be a much more effective use of resources."

"They've tried that," Kara said with a slight, sly smile. "It didn't work."

Tigh nodded his head silently in assent. "So it's not your job then. You're more valuable than the average Colonial female, or you would have been hooked up in that farm immediately."

Kara's eyes grew distant for a minute, then she refocused. "Nice to know my reports get read." She sighed, the attempt at humor falling flat to her own ears. "But they were testing me for something. Maybe they just needed more time."

"Your report stated that a member of the resistance caught with or after you was already hooked up when you broke out. So time wasn't the issue." Tigh got up and began to pace, the bowl of noodles forgotten on the tray for a minute in the face of a puzzle. "What is it that the Cylons really want from you?"

The cell door opened softly behind Tigh, and Sam Anders came in. Tigh immediately stopped pacing and shifted into a relaxed defensive stance- not that he could really stop a Cylon, but he could at least attempt it. He had to protect Kara. The Cylon interest in her was just too intense to let it go.

Anders by-passed Saul with a nod hello and concentrated his attention on Kara. Tigh was shocked enough to see a man he had thought dead that he didn't step up to stop him or catch Kara's initial reaction.

Anders approached Kara with his usual crooked smile, hands shoved in his pockets. He looked just like he had in the morning of that fateful day Kara had lost him, before the blood and injuries- or so she had _thought_ he had been lost. That single idea replayed repeatedly through her head in the five seconds it took her to react, each time growing in volume. Kara managed to shove herself as far away from him as she could, her eyes wide in fear. "You're dead."

Anders shook his head negatively, tumbling a short curly lock of hair over his eyes. _Anders never let his hair get long enough to do that,_ Kara immediately thought amid the chaos of her mind. "You're a frakkin' toaster."

"I knew you'd figure it out- eventually," he stated in an even, calm voice.

Anger- bright, red-hot fury- rose up instantaneously and she couldn't get the words out fast enough to keep up with her head. "You played me all along, you frakkin' son of a bitch!" Kara, as sore as she was. rose and quickly advanced on Anders, giving him a stinging slap across the face and leaving a red handprint there. Anders silently accepted her physical rebuke, holding his hands at his sides.

Tigh watched carefully, doing nothing to draw attention to himself in any way. This was Kara's fight, not his, as long as the toaster didn't try to physically hurt her.

"That's your free shot, Kara. I deserved that, I guess." His eyes burned brightly for a moment, then the fire dimmed down. His smile was gone, replaced by a look unlike any she had seen on his face before. It sent a brief chill down her spine. "Next time, I won't allow it."

Kara refused to acknowledge his threat, or avert her eyes. She had been fooled by a toaster. She had thrown her life away- her career- her family- Lee-all for a Cylon sleeper agent. "What do you want?"

"I'm your chance out of this cell, Kara." Anders leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed and head cocked to the side. "Agree to be my wife again, and you can be out of here right now."

"Even if I wanted to-" Kara ignored the immediate desire for this to all be a dream, wishing for Sam to just be Sam and the Occupation a figment of her imagination- "I couldn't. I know what you are now. I could never ignore that. And why would you still want me, now that I know? You could never trust me, anymore than I could trust you…" She let her voice trail off as her brain caught up with it. "What do you want me for?" she asked in a quiet, non-Starbuck tone.

_Good girl_, Saul thought to himself. She was going to try and get an answer- not that he would expect a straight answer from a toaster, human looking or not, but it could provide some new piece of information.

"Kara, you already know." Sam started towards her, then thought better of it and rested back against the wall again. "You would never go to a farm, we know that. If we got you there, you would never stay there. And, despite what you think, I do have feelings for you. Or I think I do, so what's the difference? Aren't children what all people in love want eventually?"

"I'm not in love with you, you bastard," she rasped at him, her heart pounding in her ears, almost deafening her. The truth of it, she had realized some time ago but could do nothing about, was that she had never really loved Sam. That fact especially could not be verbally admitted once he was gone. She wasn't quite ready to go beyond that thought, even now, but she knew that she had mistaken whatever it was she and Sam had had for love.

Anger flared in his eyes. "You did love me, Kara. You married me.

Kara looked at him out the corner of her eyes, wondering how far to push him. She hated herself- she had made so many mistakes, and was ashamed. She had shacked up with a toaster, given up her calling, pushed Lee away once and for all- if she pushed Anders hard enough, far enough, would he just kill her in a rage?

Did machines even 'rage'?

"What's your programming tell you to do when the woman you love never really gave a frak about you?" Kara asked in a carefully controlled, harsh Starbuck tone.

Anders took a moment to gather his control around himself like a shield. He acted as if the subject of her true feelings had never been brought up. "If it's your own childhood that's the issue, you aren't your mother, Kara. You would be a good mother-" she cut him off.

"What? Are you an idiot?" she bit off. "The fact that I don't love you aside, no way in hell. Don't you dare bring my past up against me. Like you would ever let me live a minute past pushing that brat out! I will never consent to having some half-machine spawn, even yours." She stumbled in pain as she paced like a caged animal, back and forth across the cell.

Tigh watched from his spot on the edges of the confrontation, but he didn't say a word or intervene in any way. He could feel the situation was headed toward a temporary conclusion.

Walking up to Kara and catching her off-pace, Anders cupped her cheek in his hand. "You've already had a half-machine spawn in you, Kara. You just didn't know it at the time. That child didn't survive, but the next will- or the one after."

Kara's eyes momentarily shut, and the expression on her face made Tigh cringe. When Kara opened them again, she looked directly into Anders' eyes before turning her head so that she should speak directly into his ear. She pitched her tone so that it Tigh could hear her as well, the venom in her voice astounding. "No, I didn't. Because it wasn't yours." She moved away before the shock sank in, resuming her pacing far away from Anders' reach.

"One way or another, we will get a child from you, Kara." Anders' hardened voice reflected the anger on his face. "You need to understand this, now. This is the only thing that all sides agree on in this situation." Anders made eye contact and smiled harshly. "I do love you, Kara, even though I know you don't believe that it's possible for me to do so. Even if it wasn't my child. That hasn't changed, even though the body has. But I can only offer you so much protection, Kara, before things are beyond my control and get ugly."

A harsh laugh exploded from Kara's throat. "Before it gets ugly? It could actually get uglier than this? Every inch of my body had been masterfully beaten- I haven't eaten in days- toasters keep trying to mind frak me- and you want me to bear your abomination."

Tigh kept silent, but watched Anders and his body's reaction to Kara. The admission about the child- news to Tigh- had caused understandable anger. However, the copy seemed to have some genuine feelings for Kara, judging from his face and posture. Tigh immediately began to consider how best to use this knowledge.

Anders shook his head again and stood to leave. He came to Kara, catching her at the near end of a circuit around the cell and leaned down to brush a kiss on her forehead before pulling back at her reaction to his proximity. "I'll let you think about it for a while." He turned and left, leaving an angry silence in his wake.


	9. Chapter 8

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

Work In Progress 

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 10?

**Date-** 8-24-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

Word Count- 1146 

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 1 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Nine

Tigh allowed Starbuck a few moments to gather herself together before speaking. "Well, we know what they want from you, and that they want it pretty badly. The question is, why?"

Kara, still regathering the little dignity she had left around her, ignored the question for a moment. She sat down and silently took the last bowl of noodles from the Boomer's tray and began shoveling it into her mouth. If her mouth was full, Tigh couldn't expect her to talk.

Noting the avoidance technique, Tigh shook his head. Hiding from the truth, allowing personal feelings to trip them up, it would get them killed. Right now, Kara Thrace was acting like an indignant woman, not a Colonial officer. He was going to have to remind her of her status and duties, but he knew he would have to get through the angry woman first.

He choose to go directly for the most memorable bit of the conversation with the Cylon. "Whose was it, then?"

Kara's brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed at him. "Doesn't matter, as long as it wasn't his," she mumbled through her food and returned her glare to it.

"I take that as an admission it was Lee's." Tigh deliberately baited her.

Her sharp intact of breath made Tigh glad that she was in no shape to go after him. He had a feeling she would have used anger to beat him down pretty badly, what with no one to step in and stop her/save him. When she declined to reply and continued eating, he pushed further.

"It's understandable that you wouldn't tell your husband that you were frakking your dead fiance's brother." He waited a few minutes, listening to her chew and continued his friendly fire version of psychological torture. "But the real question is when did it start? Before you were married, or only after? Or were your frakking Lee while Zak was still alive, too?

"You mother frakker!" Kara spat out as she struggled past her injuries to get to Tigh, her fists clenched tightly and death in her eye. "Don't you dare accuse me of that, you old drunk!"

Tigh pushed the last button, one that would get Kara to focus. "Rumor has it, you've pretty much frakked half the Galactica at this point. The Old Man was probably relieved you got yourself hitched and stopped sleeping around. Less of an embarrassment to him, you being almost like a daughter to him." Tigh shifted the subject subtley. "But this isn't about who you frakked or didn't frak, or when, Captain. This is about a toaster playing with your mind and making a fool of you!"

Kara stopped cold, swallowing convulsively several times and feeding all her hate and anger into a glare at Tigh. It lasted several minutes before she turned back around and sat down, resuming eating her meal. "You're right," she said softly.

Tigh nodded and relaxed. He's gotten pretty good at reading Starbuck over the last few months, and the one thing she still didn't handle well was when she thought someone played her for a fool- especially if that someone got away with it. "Well, the Cylons made fools out of twelve colonies worth of people. Get over it, and start thinking logically."

Chewing, Kara shook her head. She just couldn't shut her mind off now. Seeing Anders, finding out he was a Cylon, giving away the deep dark secret that had broken her relationship with Lee- the pain, the hurt, wouldn't let anything else through. She knew how vulnerable that made her- them- but she still couldn't get past it. Sighing, she realized that she needed to talk this out with Tigh if she was going to seal it up inside her again. And she needed to, because she had to focus solely on getting through this.

When the frak had Tigh been made her confessor? And who would ever have thought? She tried to prepare herself for the telling of it, but nothing ever really made the subject any easier for her to discuss. So she just jumped right in.

"It was Lee's child." Kara took a shaky breath. "Happened too early to tell if it would have been a girl or a boy, before I even knew it myself." She closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall, caught up in the memory. "While Anders was already down on the planet and I was finishing up on the Galactica, Lee and I-"

"I may not like kids that much, but I do know how you get them, Thrace," Tigh stated dryly.

Kara opened one eye and glared at him again. "Lee and I got very drunk one night, after he knew that I was leaving. We were saying goodbye, in a really frakked up, Starbuck n' Apollo way. Around six weeks later, playing pyramid with Sam, I passed out and woke up bleeding. Cottle told me, and I didn't believe him at first. What with the radiation exposure Sam had, it probably wouldn't have been possible-" she shuddered. "Had Sam been HUMAN, a child would have been unlikely. Cottle didn't pry, but he said that there must have been someone else, then."

Tigh nodded. "How did Lee find out?"

"I don't know. Someone told him. I had collapsed in front of a few people- then there were the people in Life Station…" Kara stretched her neck, rolling her head around until she heard a satisfying _pop_. "He called and asked me if I was okay. He never asked if the baby was his, but it was clear that he knew. It was also equally clear that he was glad I had miscarried."

Tigh protested. "As little as I might think of Lee at times, I hardly think he would have been happy to lose a child!"

"Oh, no. He wouldn't have wished his child dead." Kara wrapped her arms around herself and tightened them. "He would have wished _our_ child was dead." She sniffled, despite her best effort. "It was the day after he married Dee."

Saul let the weight of that statement hang in the air for a few moments before speaking. "And you let Sam think it was his?"

"Not my best moment." Kara scrubbed her face of leaking tears and crusted blood as best she could. "Now we know for sure that it was Lee's, and so does he. As good as it felt to throw it in his face, it might not have been a good tactical decision."

"Now there's no proof that you might be able to carry a Cylon child." Tigh finished her thought. "But they didn't know that for sure to begin with, and their interest in you has never waned."

"And, again- what the frak's so important about me?" Kara growled through gritted teeth. "How do they know so much about me?"


	10. Chapter 9

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

Work In Progress 

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 10?

**Date-** 8-26-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

Word Count- 1207 

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 1 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Nine

The next week passed in near solitude in their cell, aside from infrequent visits from a non-chatty Sharon model to bring them food. There was no torture, no revelation as to Kara's "destiny," nothing. All that happened was that Kara had some time to heal. It made them more than suspicious and unsettled, until an Anders copy showed up on Day Seven with an entourage of Centurions waiting in the hallway.

Kara had been asleep, facing the back wall, but as soon as the cell door was tripped, she opened her eyes and caught Tigh's half-lidded ones as he woke up as well. Neither moved, waiting to see what was coming, but each was tensed and ready to leap directly into the fray. Long moments passed with nothing but the sound of their breathing, and Kara decided to take a chance and "wake up." She rolled over, and got the shock of her life when an Anders was sitting on the floor next to her, staring directly into her face.

"What the frak!" she swore, scrambling up like a crab and as far away from him as she could. Tigh shot up at the sound of her voice as well, crouching in a defensive position but unsure where to direct his fight.

"I didn't mean to frighten you, Kara," the Anders stated in a cool voice. "But I've come to find out your answer."

She frowned, as sleep fog slowly left her mind. "Answer?" she snapped, buying time.

"There will be a child, Kara. The question is how you want to go about it." The Anders gave her a hooded look, a look that would have warmed parts of her body necessary for bearing children before the knowledge that he was a frakkin' toaster. Now it just made her nauseous.

She hissed her answer at him. "And I told you that it will never happen."

"Is that really your answer?" Anders tried to push her buttons a bit. "Or are you just still pissed at me? Because from what I remember, making up with you was a lot of fun…"

"Don't remind me, toaster. It makes me feel sick to think of it." Kara shifted her feet under her, ready to pounce. She knew what was coming, as much as she tried to avoid thinking about it or tried to come up with a defense. In all her time in a mostly male military, she had never, at any time, felt such a personal threat as that represented by the Cylon in front of her.

It made her heart beat irregularly fast to consider it. "So how do you want to do this, Anders?' It was low but audible to Tigh, a cue for him to act. She just wasn't sure what he could do.

The Anders sighed. "Enter, Centurions!" he barked.

Tigh was up and down in record time. The first Centurion barreling through the door knocked him down and to the side; good thing, too, or the rest would have trampled him. Kara noted his disabling and steeled herself to do battle alone. The gleaming Cylons formed a half-circle around Kara and the Anders copy, who rose with a sad look on his face. "This is your decision, Kara. Remember that."

Her blood ran like ice. There was nothing, nothing she was going to be able to do to prevent this. She kept her eyes trained on Anders, with sidelong looks at the metal models surrounding them. The minutes ticked on, but there was no movement, just the sound of breathing.

Anders spoke again, in a tense voice, almost as if- almost as if he really regretted what he was about to do. "Kara, you can still change your mind. I love you. It doesn't have to be this way…" His voice trailed off, her answer apparent in her stance. "Then let's begin."

The Centurions moved forward as one, grabbing and holding her in place. One each took an arm or leg and held her immobile. Another one tried to remove the clothing from the lower half of her body; when she resisted, kicking at the thing, it had stepped back and Anders moved forward. "Stop fighting, Kara," he whispered in her ear. "Don't make this worse than it has to be."

She turned her head as if to answer him and bit part of his ear off.

His yelp of pain did not slow his reflexes. His hand was around her throat, pinning her to the wall, in seconds. The fury in his face was obvious, as was the internal struggle he was experiencing. "Be glad that you are the prophesized mother of the Messiah, you bitch, or I'd crush your windpipe here and now and end this."

The shock of her destiny revealed took the edge off the weight of his hands for a few minutes, until her vision staring blurring on the edges. When he asked her if she would cooperate yet, she feigned trying to speak so that he would let up the pressure, which he did.

Then she head butted him the minute his grip on her neck loosened.

His reaction was to smack her across the face, breaking open a new cut across a cheek, and motion another Centurion over. "Keep your hand on her throat." Looking back to Kara, he wiped a smear of very realistic blood from the cut she'd managed to give him over nose. "If you fight, he will squeeze- until I tell him to stop or you are near death. Do you understand?"

Kara did her best to nod, trying to avoid any extra contact with the Centurion's cold and lifeless hand.

"Good," Anders spat out. He reached and removed her pants and under things himself, taking his time and letting his hands stay on her much longer than necessary. Then he unbelted his own clothing and pushed it down far enough to do the job. He took the time to look her up and down, and rearrange her body to his liking. She found her face pressed up against the cold wall, and Anders pressed up against her back.

"I remember that you used to like it this way, Starbuck," he laughed throatily in her ear. "Let's see-" and he pushed his way into her unprepared body, pulling and tearing and causing immense pain. Each thrust drove her against the wall, and she couldn't even struggle with the Centurions holding her limbs and throat in place.

Only a steel will kept the tears from falling, kept his harsh treatment of her body from eliciting any sounds of pain or despair. If she could not fight back, she would at least keep back that satisfaction from him. It seemed like hours later that he jerked harder into her, gasped, and withdrew. She felt the Centurion hands disappear, and slid onto her knees against the wall. She felt her pants land nearby, brushing against her bare leg, and curled up into herself, with only the wall supporting her.

It was long minutes of empty, echoing silence before she could force her trembling hands and body to attempt to dress herself. Then she curled up in on herself again, and waited for Tigh to wake up.


	11. Chapter 10

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

Work In Progress 

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 11?

**Date-** 8-27-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

Word Count- 1275 

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 1 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Ten

Tigh came to consciousness much slower than he usually would. At first, he didn't remember how he had ended up on this side of the cell, jumbled in such an uncomfortable position. As he rolled over and searched for Kara, spotting her curled up on her side and facing the wall, he remembered. _There will be a child. The question is how you want to go about it._ Anders, and a small company of Centurions. Then blackness.

Frak. Oh, frak. "Thrace?" he called as he carefully rose to his feet and made his way over to her, dropping to his knees with a thud once he reached her. He put a hand out to shake her alert, then pulled it back as he thought better of it. "Kara?"

She took a deep, shuddering breath, keeping her eyes closed but speaking to him. "Leave me alone, sir."

Saul swallowed heavily. He had hoped that it would not come to this, that they would die or be rescued long before it. The gods hadn't heard that little prayer, apparently, and he was going to have to help her pick up the pieces. The woman huddled before him bore no resemblance to the fiery Starbuck- and that scared him more than anything that had happened to them so far did. "Kara, I'm-"

"Leave it be," she said in a low threatening voice, opening one red eye to level an angry stare at him. "I don't want to talk about this. Not now, not ever." Then she moved away from him and turned to her other side, so that she was looking at the wall instead of him.

Tigh tried on last time. He could not imagine how she must be feeling after what he thought had happened to her; simply thought, because she had not yet actually confirmed his suspicion. "What did Anders want?"

"I said," she ground out, the tension evident in the line of her back even though she was reclining, "leave it be. Now leave me alone."

And Tigh had to let her have her way, because he alone wasn't going to change her mind, and he didn't want to be alone in this cell with her ignoring him because she was pissed off. So she had her way, if or until she changed her mind.

The next few hours were spent in silence. Kara made several trips to the tiny head in the corner, to clean herself up as best she could and throw up several times. Tigh averted his eyes and attention from her to give her some privacy, but kept his eyes and ears on her at all other times. He was waiting for a break down, a fissure in the façade of Starbuck.

He was waiting for permission to speak to her, without getting his head cut off. When had this relationship changed? Since when did he give a damn about what she or any other subordinate _felt_, as long as they did their duty? He tried to tell himself that he needed her whole to fight their captivity, and that this…event…would fester and could incapacitate her unless she talked about it. In his heart, though, he knew that he finally understood why Bill and Lee felt so strongly about Lt. Kara Thrace that they were willing to risk the entire fleet to rescue her.

Kara Thrace was smart, strong- in body and mind, beautiful in a very non-traditional, character filled way, and a good person with a generous heart. She put others before herself without a second thought if they needed her protection.

On the other hand, if someone failed in his/her duty to protect, she called you on it, quickly, loudly, and often painfully. She could hold a grudge like no one's business, but was also capable of genuine forgiveness, as Tigh himself well knew. She played a mean game of triad with more luck than any one person should have- flew like a demon and rubbed your face in it. Simply put, she was not someone who was supposed to be likable.

Yet, somehow, she was. And now Saul wanted to protect her, not just because she was a fellow soldier, but because he had actually come to like and understand Thrace. He had failed earlier today, but there had to be a way to make it up to her, at least a little. He couldn't imagine the fear, the pain- the embarrassment- of such an attack. He was glad he had been unconscious for it, had not had to hear or see it.

Finally, Kara spoke up. "I don't think that today will be the last time."

Tigh nodded. "We need to come up with a plan of attack-"

She cut him off with a sharp negative shake of her head. "There is no way to attack. There is no way to fight off a centurion- much less a group of them- in hand-to-hand with out a weapon or an explosive device."

"What are you saying?" Tigh asked, his brow creased in puzzlement.

Kara met his eyes shakily, her own wet and empty. "We can't- I can't stop them. There is no defense-"

Tigh cursed. "There's always a way! Think harder, Starbuck, go out of the box- that's what your always so gods-damned good at-" the anger in his voice, the venom, shocked him. It wasn't directed at Starbuck, who flinched as if he'd hit her, but himself and the situation. Kara thought otherwise.

"They wouldn't kill me. I tried to goad them into it." Kara hugged herself with her arms. "He said told a Centurion to strangle me if I resisted anymore, strangle me just until I passed out but not to kill me. He didn't want me to die, because I'm-" a cry strangled her voice, forcing her to gasp for breath and stop.

"There has to be a way-" Tigh repeated again, this time in an angry hiss to himself, pacing wildly. "Something to do, some way to psyche them out if we can't force it physically-"

"I don't know why they think it, Saul, but he said that I'm going to be the mother of the Messiah." Kara rocked back and forth, settling her forehead on her knees.

Tigh sucked in a shaky breath. He could see that this mental side to today's attack might have actually damaged her more than the physical aspects. She had never, ever, addressed him by his first name before. It showed how close to the edge she was skirting. "Did he explain what the Messiah was supposed to do?"

"No, he was a little busy to explain," she tried to joke as tears squeezed out the corners of her eyes. "But I think the whole Messiah thing is pretty important to them. I don't think he's going to give up after one attempt."

Tigh studied her. So close to losing it, to giving up- he could hear it in her voice. This was not what he was good at; this was what Bill was good at. This lack of ability is what had made him, when sober, a good XO. He feared mis-speaking or using the wrong tone. "And if they don't give up-" he paused, continuing after a few moments of silence. "How do you want to deal with-"

"I'm not giving up," Kara stated in a gritty, despairing voice. "I still hope the Old Man and Lee will come back for us. I can't give up that hope. I will fight as long as I'm able to." She looked past him at a spot over his shoulder. "I just don't know how long that will be."


	12. Chapter 11

**Title- _The Redemption of Colonel Tigh_**

Work In Progress 

**Author**- PTBvisiongrrl

**Part-** 12?

**Date-** 9-3-06

**Rating** – R

**Pairings/Characters**- Lee/Kara (eventually), Tigh/Kara relationship (non-romantic!)

Word Count- 1277 

**Category-** Short Story, for now- but let's see what everyone thinks!

**Genre-** Romance (eventually), Angst, Action, Drama

**Archiving-** The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!

**Warnings-** i.e. death, language, violence, rape, torture, etc.

**Spoilers-** Season 1 through the rumors of Season 3

**Disclaimers-** _Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…_

**Summary- **Tigh comes out of the Cylon Occupation a better man, thanks to Kara Thrace.

Chapter Eleven

Tigh sighed. Such a burden of sorrow Kara- Kara, and not Starbuck, he mentally differentiated- carried. The girl just never got a break in life. How could she just sit and so calmly acknowledge that she would probably be repeatedly raped throughout their captivity, and not try and DO something about it? Taking a deep breath, Saul asked the question he needed her to answer. "Kara- when he- when they- if they are going to come back, what do you want me to do? I can't just stand there and let them-"

A sniffle was cut-off and Kara wiped her nose on her sleeve. "You have to. If you fight it, they'll kill you. And I can't do this alone. I won't survive." Kara's eyes widened and a look of panic settled into her features as she searched out his eyes. "You can't die. You can't leave me alone!"

Grabbing her hand, afraid to touch her anywhere else, he spoke to her as if calming a child. He needed her calm and rational, and able to take. She could not break down now, not until she answered him. "I will not leave you alone, Kara, as long as I have anything to do with it-"

"Lee left me alone, of his own free will," Kara muttered, her eyes cloudy and unfocused. Tigh recognized the after effects of today's trauma beginning to hit; and she probably wouldn't even remember this conversation tomorrow. He decided to let her go, instead of trying to follow her logic, and hope that he could get her back and thinking-plotting- before Anders resurfaced. "At least Zak had no control over his leaving…"

"Didn't you leave Lee first?" Tigh asked, seeing a chance to get her back to reality as soon as possible.

Kara grasped her knees with her arms and rested her cheek on her back knee. "No. He had left me long before I left him. I just got married first, that 's all. He and Dee-" she hiccuped, and Tigh interrupted.

"Lee and Dee didn't love each other, Kara. Nice front they put up, but neither one was really happy." Tigh couldn't believe he was going to say this- not because he didn't believe it, but because he was going to use the information to get Starbuck back in place of 'Kara.' Kara was useless right now; Starbuck would kick ass. "He was only happy when you were around and could give him all your attention. It was obvious for anyone with eyes- even the drunken XO."

Kara barked a short, Starbuck-esque laugh, cut off by a rustling in the corridor beyond the door. Then cell door slid open, before they could ready themselves to fight, exposing yet another Sharon Valerii copy. This one, however, was very different looking. This was not Boomer; this Sharon wore a sheer white, floor-length gown covered with a pale orange robe and a silver choker studded with amber. Even her voice was different- less harsh?- when she spoke. "Your birth was foretold to us, as well as your life."

"What the frak?" Kara stated, her eyes wide in fear and surprise.

"Our God speaks in prophecies, which if we are but strong enough in faith we will understand. You are the greatest of his prophecies." Sharon practically beamed at Kara, who momentarily doubted the copy's sanity. That would certainly explain the pronounced differences between the copies Kara had known and this one. "You are one of God's chosen, the vessel to bring forth a new world for us, wherein the parents and the children are reconciled once again."

Tigh positioned himself between the copy and Kara. "How do you know that she is chosen? What are you talking about?"

The Sharon made her way over and placed a hand on Kara's forehead momentarily. "Her whole life has prepared her for this duty. God has prepared her for this."

Kara wrenched away from the Boomer and hissed at her, "And suppose I don't want this _duty_? What if I refuse to let you manipulate me?"

The Boomer crouched down and looked Kara over. "I cannot manipulate you. I am merely a voice for God's plan; only he can change the plan. Any action you take, it was meant to happen. Others may misinterpret the plan, but your destiny is still yours, regardless."

"No," Kara spat out, turning away and folding her arms around herself again. "I make my own destiny."

"You don't really believe that, Kara." Boomer sat next to Kara, not getting _the Go away!_ hint. "I can prove it."

Kara's lip curled in a Starbuck glare of disbelief. "End the mind-frak and go away. You can't prove it, and I don't want to hear your lies." The force behind her voice made Saul's skin prickle. He had a feeling that, Cylon or not, Kara was inches away from launching herself at the model and smashing her wiring.

Boomer gave Kara a look that Tigh couldn't describe. Peaceful, accepting, at the same time regretful- almost like the face of an idol. It chilled him almost as much as Kara's reaction to the Boomer's next words, as she trailed out of the cell. "Your father left the day after you turned four; the next day, your mother gave you a black eye, the first of fifty-three."

Kara blanched- difficult for one so pale to begin with. Her mouth opened and closed without a sound; the Boomer took Kara's silence as a chance to push her unexpected advantage. "One week later, she gave you your first hairline fracture-the left radius." Boomer reached and took Kara's left arm carefully, brushing it gently just where it had been injured.

Kara did not pull her arm out of the Boomer's grasp. Tigh's own skin prickled in revulsion.

Taking the lack of reaction as an invitation, Boomer continued, "She hit you for the last time the day you turned sixteen and you told her that you were pregnant by her latest boyfriend. She took you for the abortion and told you not to come home. You signed up for the academy the next day."

Kara's hand unthinkingly fell flat against her stomach. "How do you know so much about me?" Her eyes were unfocused, her thoughts obviously distracting her, as she had begun to fall under the spell of more Cylon lies.

Or, Tigh considered, were they truth, to a degree?

Boomer smiled, nodding. "You begin to see, then. I am not lying. You remember these things like it was yesterday, yet you've never told anyone about them, not even your fiance. How could I know these things, unless God told me, Kara?"

Tigh had to break the spell Boomer was weaving around the traumatized Starbuck. "Shut the frak up-"

Boomer whirled to meet him, a much different and more blood thirsty look on her face, just for him. Her voice was much harsher and angrier as well. It was like split-personality Cylon. "You are not part of the prophecy- you are dispensible. Remember it."

He stopped short of the Cylon, who was blocking his access to Kara. Kara, hearing the Boomer, snapped back into reality. "You want me to fulfill my destiny, you better leave him alone." Kara's voice was low and menacing.

The Boomer immediately became contrite. "I am sorry, Kara. I did not realize that he meant anything to you." Again, Boomer kneeled down . "That makes this harder to say, then. I came to tell you that I can save you. I can get you out of this cell." She leveled a look at Tigh that Kara could not see, full of seething hatred. "But only you."


End file.
